Follyfoot Annual (1976)

This is the Follyfoot Annual from 1976. Above is the front cover and below a picture strip entitled, "One Good Turn" that appeared in the annual.

Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) - Episode Fifteen - The Man From Nowhere!

The Man from Nowhere is the fifteenth episode of the classic ITC British TV Series, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 28 December 1969 on ITV and was Directed by Robert Tronson.

A man enters Jeannie's life pretending that he is Marty returned from the dead. As he gradually builds Jeannie's trust with his alarming knowledge of Marty's life, Jeff, suspicious from the beginning (with Marty familiar with the man but unable to recall) finds that he is a runaway member of a gang and has taken Jeannie to the Cotswolds where she and Marty had their honeymoon. Seeming very inquisitive about recalling the details of where they had an accident it turns out the Marty imposter had stashed away a hoard of stolen silver years and years ago and that he was the other driver of the car where they had the accident after he had done it. He turns out that he was misleading Jeannie all along just to help locate his treasure, leaving Jeannie confused as to why he didn't just ask her in two seconds flat.

Nowhere To Go (1958)

Paul Gregory is sprung from jail in London by his accomplice after getting a stretch as expected for robbing a woman who falls for his charms. Only he knows how to get to the money, but his partner is getting greedy and as things turn sour Gregory finds that home in Canada is a long way away.

If this film had been made in 1950s France by Directors named Clouzot or Melville, this Ealing production would be a regular on the revival circuit and in film school classrooms. Sadly, it is a completely unheralded film. Directed expertly by Seth Holt who co-wrote the film with critic Kenneth Tynan. The film features an on his way to Europe George Nader as an American con man in London, looking to score by stealing a valuable coin collection (the owner is played by American expatriate and silent film star Bessie Love.

His companion in the crime is the docile Bernard Lee, and there are double crosses and dirty dealings aplenty. The star of the film is Paul Beeson's amazing cinematography, always artistic but never too showy. Beeson also did sterling work for Ealing's The Shiralee (1957) and it is hard to understand how his career ended up on the Harry Alan Towers scrap heap. Dizzy Reece's outstanding jazz score (his only film work) fits the story like a glove and Maggie Smith makes her film debut as Nader's love interest. This is a great film and a true work of art!

The Best of Status Quo (1973)

Status Quo: The Best Of Status Quo released in 1973 was a French 11-track compilation LP of the very best of the Quo!

1. Down The Dustpipe
2. Gerdundula
3. In My Chair
4. Umleitlung
5. Lakky Lady
6. Daughter
7. Railroad
8. Tune To The Music
9. April Spring Summer & Wednesdays
10. Mean Girl
11. Spinning Wheel Blues

Radio Times (1966)

This edition of the Radio Times dates back to 1966 and features as its cover, Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott from the series, "Hugh and I"

The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966)

The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery is a British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School and was released in 1966, three years after the Great Train Robbery had taken place. It also parodies the technocratic ideas of the Harold Wilson government and its support of the Comprehensive school system.

Directed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat to a script by Sidney and Leslie Gilliat, it was the fourth in a series of five St. Trinian's films. However it retained only George Cole, Richard Wattis and Eric Barker from the earlier films. Several new actors were brought in, including Frankie Howerd as Alfred (Alphonse) Askett, Reg Varney as Gilbert, and Dora Bryan as Amber Spottiswood, the headmistress. Although asked twice, Joyce Grenfell refused to appear again as Sergeant Ruby Gates. She was later reported to have said that she regretted appearing in the St Trinian's saga.

Raymond Huntley appeared as the "Minister of Schools" (a fictional title), and Cyril Chamberlain appeared as Maxie.

The first colour St. Trinian's film takes its inspiration from the notorious real-life mail train robbery of 1963, and is the fourth entry in the series based on Ronald Searle's cartoon schoolgirls.

"Alphonse" Askett (Frankie Howerd) is a hairdresser who is also the operational leader of a gang of crooks who are led behind the scenes by an invisible mastermind (Stratford Johns). He gives instructions to Askett about the robbery, Operation Windfall, using a variety of almost James Bond-like communications devices -- including a converted showerhead.

The crooks hide the loot in a deserted country mansion, and after waiting for the hue and cry to die down return to collect the numerous mailbags which contain £2.5 million (the same amount as in the real robbery). However, following a Labour Party election triumph, the house has been converted into a new home for St. Trinian's School for Girls. The crooks decide to infiltrate the school by sending Askett’s delinquent daughters, Lavinia and Marcia Mary, to St. Trinian’s to find out where the money is concealed. The crooks' subsequent attempt to retrieve the mailbags on Parents' Day, disguised as caterers, results in a climactic train chase between the robbers and the girls.

A sub-plot is the affair between the headmistress of St Trinian's and the Minister, who uses his influence to obtain a large government grant for the school, thus allowing it to move to the mansion. This angers his staff who are normally Conservatives but early in the film are seen excitedly watching labour win as they believe St Trinians will be shut down. This aspect of the story was probably the reason why the Ministry of Education became the fictional "Ministry of Schools" for this film, to avoid possible action for defamation from a real Minister of Education.

1971 Sony Clock Radio

This ad dates back to 1971 and introduces the Sony dynamic clock radio for the office, the living room, the kitchen. For almost anywhere!

James Bond Calendars (2004)

True to its title this James Bond Movie posters calendar features of course, yes you've guessed it, James Bond movie posters - Sean Connery has four posters: "Dr. No," "Goldfinger," "You Only Live Twice," and "Diamonds Are Forever." Roger Moore also has four: "Moonraker," "For Your Eyes Only," "Octopussy," and "View to a Kill." Timothy Dalton, gets both of his films, "The Living Daylights" and "License to Kill,"

Pierce Brosnan also gets two with, "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "Die Another Day."

This James Bond calendar is also from 2004 and features classic James Bond movie scenes.

Willie Nelson - Legend (2008)

Willie Nelson "Legend" The Very Best Of was released 2008 in the form of CD & album - Willie Nelson is widely recognised as a musical icon, his distinctive music and other social & political activities sometimes take a backseat to his pop-culture public image [firmly grounded in the acknowledged reality of his life], that of an elderly, lifelong marijuana-smoking old-school cowboy-hippie troubadour; this 20-track collection includes his greatest hits alongside a live version of 'Whiskey River' and features guest appearances by Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Ray Charles & Julio Iglesias).

TV-Times - Return of the Saint (1978)

This TV-Times cover dates back to 1978 and Ian Ogilvy taking over the mantel as Simon Templar in, Return of the Saint. Ogilvy though, was never going to be a patch on the great Roger Moore!

Radio Times - Doctor Finlay's Casebook (1969)

Another classic edition of the Radio Times. This time from 1969 with the cast of Doctor Finlay's casebook gracing the cover.

Kes (1969) The Ken Loach Classic

Kes was a 1969 British film from Director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. The film is based on the novel, A Kestrel for a Knave written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines in 1968. The film is ranked seventh in the The British Film Institute's Top Ten (British) Films and among the top ten in its lists of the top 50 films you should see by the time you are aged 14.

The film focuses on 15-year-old Billy Casper, who has little hope in life and is bullied both at home, by his physically and verbally abusive half-brother, Judd, as well as at school. He is mischievous himself; he steals milk from milk floats, gets other students into trouble and generally fights and misbehaves. Billy comes over as an emotionally neglected boy with little self-respect. Billy's mother refers to him in the film as a "hopeless case". His father is dead.

The film shows scenes of Billy's school. The headmaster canes a group of boys who were caught smoking. One scene of comic relief in an otherwise bleak film is of a gym teacher (played by Brian Glover) taking part in a football game, fantasising about himself as Bobby Charlton and commentating on the match in his head.

Outside cadging money and day-dreaming at school, Billy has no positive interests. His greatest fear is ending up working down the pit as a coal miner (at that time, British miners were amongst the lowest paid workers in the developed world), but he has no apparent escape route from what would ultimately be his fate. That is until he finds an outlet from his pitiful existence through training a kestrel that he takes from a nest on a farm. His interest in learning falconry prompts Billy to steal a book on the subject from a secondhand book shop as he cannot get a borrower's card for the public library.

As the relationship between Billy and "Kes", the kestrel, during the training improves so does Billy's outlook and horizons. For the first time in the film Billy receives praise, from his English teacher after delivering an impromptu talk on his relationship with the bird.

However, when Judd sends Billy off to place a bet on a horse, Billy spends the money on chips, as he assumes the horse is unlikely to win. However, the horse wins (meaning Judd would have won over £10 if Billy had put the bet on), and Judd is furious at Billy, and takes revenge by killing his kestrel because he could not find Billy. Judd confronts his mother and Billy finds his kestrel, who is now dead. Billy shows his kestrel to Judd and his mother, leaving Judd angry at him, but Billy leaves to stop the confrontation. He buries his kestrel in the same garden he found the bird.

Kes was Ken Loach's second feature film, and marks his move away from the self-conscious experimentalism of his earlier work.

As before, Loach developed a close partnership with the author of the source work, in this case Barry Hines, on whose novel A Kestrel for a Knave the film is based. Loach worked with both Hines and producer Tony Garnett to adapt it as a film script.

The dominant theme of Kes is the way in which the education system stifles the talents of many young working-class children, offering them little choice but to follow the narrow path laid out for them by an industrial capitalist society which sees them as fit only for unskilled manual or office work. This theme runs through much of Loach's work.

The influence of Italian neo-realism film-making can be traced in Kes, as in Poor Cow (1967). Loach explained, "the camera's job was to record in a sympathetic way and to be unobtrusive, not to be slick." Loach and his cameraman Chris Menges didn't, as is common in fiction films, mark spots for the actors to hit, but instead tried to accommodate the actors' movements. Loach, though, has admitted that throughout his films, including Kes, "I lay traps, as it were," for example by moving furniture. The apparent simplicity and directness of Loach's filming thus contains an element of manipulation which is hidden from both the audience and the actors.

Casting is also a striking feature of Kes. Colin Welland, as the English teacher, Farthing, was the only professional actor in the cast, although several, notably Brian Glover as the bullying Games teacher, went on to acting careers. All of the pupils, including Dai Bradley, who gives a remarkably natural performance as Billy, came from the Barnsley school in which the film was shot, while the headmaster was played by the school's own head. As with several Loach films, many of the adult cast were found in local clubs where they worked as entertainers and comics. Loach has commented that he casts for "authenticity of age, class or region," believing that even skilled actors cannot disguise their class origins under the close scrutiny of the camera.

Initially, there were difficulties in getting Kes shown, and it had a patchy release after opening in Doncaster. Since then, however, it has become one of Loach's best known and admired films.

Kes
Directed by	Ken Loach
Produced by	Tony Garnett
Screenplay by	Barry Hines Ken Loach Tony Garnett
Based on	A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
Starring	David Bradley Freddie Fletcher Lynne Perrie Colin Welland Brian Glover
Music By	John Cameron
Cinematography	Chris Menges
Editing by	Roy Watts
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	1969
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Hill Street Blues - Series Two - Episode One (Hearts and Minds)

The second season gets off to an explosive start when a domestic situation turns violent in the squad room. Furillo is skeptical of an ex-Black Arrow gang leader, Jesse John Hudson, who returns to the Hill as a social reformer.

Belker makes contact with a rookie undercover officer planted inside the Black Arrows who tells a much different story than Hudson. The cops' skeptism is increased when two rival warlords of the gang turn up dead.

Calletano and Goldblume search for a missing boy. Fay descends on the Hill with a birthday cake for Furillo, who turns 40. Joyce represents a topless waitress who accuses a detective of blackmailing her for sex. Belker nabs a purse-snatching orangutan. Esterhaus questions his involvement with Grace. Frank and Joyce split up after he demands their relationship move forward.